“I can’t be quiet! I am angry and bitter. I have to speak” (Job 7:11 GNT).

God can handle your emotions — he gave them to you, after all! He can handle your anger, doubt, fear, questions, grief, and even your complaints. Be honest; tell it to God. Get it off your shoulders. Spill your guts! Tell God exactly how you feel: “God, I hurt!” This is exactly what Job did.

Job was brutally honest with God: “I can’t be quiet! I am angry and bitter. I have to speak” (Job 7:11 GNT). He continued to unload in the verses that follow: “Why do you keep me under guard? Do you think I am a sea monster? I lie down and try to rest; I look for relief from my pain. But you — you terrify me with dreams; you send me visions and nightmares until I would rather be strangled than live in this miserable body. I give up; I am tired of living. Leave me alone. My life makes no sense. Why are people so important to you? Why pay attention to what they do? You inspect them every morning and test them every minute. Won’t you look away long enough for me to swallow my spit? Are you harmed by my sin, you jailer?” (Job 7:12-20 GNT).

If you were God, how would you react to that? Maybe get angry? Is that what God did? No! Because God understood Job. God understands you, too, and he understands your hurt. God isn’t surprised when you say, “God, I don’t like this. This stinks. It hurts!” Who do you think created those emotions? Who do you think gave you the capacity to get angry and express those feelings? God did. God is not surprised by your emotional state.

God let Job get it off his chest. It was a catharsis, a kind of cleansing so that Job could get clean and be healed.

The right response to unexplained tragedy is not “grin and bear it” or pious platitudes but honestly telling God your struggle. Lamentations 2:19 says, “Cry out in the night . . . Pour out your heart like water in prayer to the Lord” (NCV).

Job questioned God’s actions, but he never stopped trusting God. Did you know that trusting God with your feelings is an act of worship? “Job stood up, tore his robe in grief, and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground and worshiped” (Job 1:20 GW).

Go ahead. Express all your feelings. Release your frustrations. God can handle it!

PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >>

Talk About It

• How does it feel when you tell a close friend exactly how you feel?
• When you find yourself questioning God’s actions, do you continue to trust God, or does that become a struggle?
• What difference is there, if any, between releasing your frustrations to your best friend and releasing them to God? What is the effect?

“Anyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Romans 10:13 TLB).

Are you at a place in your life where you need to be rescued? Are you ready to call out for help? It doesn’t take a special phone or a bat-signal. All you have to do is ask and Jesus will rescue you. You can ask him to rescue you in any area of your life: a relationship, a financial situation, a health issue, anything. But you have to ask.

In Psalm 91:15, God says, “When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them” (NLT). That’s not just talk, because God doesn’t lie. It would be contrary to his character because he is total truth.

Notice that God says you have to do your part and then he’ll do his part. You call, he answers. That’s it. Just call on the name of the Lord. And the name of the Lord is Jesus.

It’s vital to understand that in any rescue operation, the rescuer gets to determine the means and method of the rescue. You don’t get to determine how you are saved. It’s not up to you; it’s up to your Savior. And Jesus says, “I am the way . . . No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 NIV).

Jesus doesn’t say he’s a good way or a nice way or even the best way. He says, “I’m it.” If there were a plan B, God wouldn’t have sent Jesus — his plan A — to Earth to die for you. So if you’re going to be saved and have all your sins forgiven, there’s only one way it will happen, and there’s only one person you can call on: Jesus.

PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >>

Talk It Over

• How do you draw strength from the “total truth” nature of God’s character?
• Why is it important that God says we have to do our part and call on the name of the Lord?
• What’s the most surprising element to your story of how Jesus rescued you?

“Jesus Christ rescued us . . . by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins. God’s plan is that we all experience that rescue” (Galatians 1:4 The Message).

David was one of Israel’s greatest kings – powerful, smart, wealthy. He could have anything he wanted, but he knew he was unable to truly save himself. Only one person could rescue him: “I stand silently before the Lord, waiting for you to rescue me. For salvation comes from him alone” (Psalm 62:1 TLB).

It is impossible to work our way, buy our way, or earn our way into heaven. When it comes to salvation, we are unable to save ourselves. The government can’t save us. Our popularity can’t save us. Our level of success can’t save us. “There’s no such thing as self-rescue, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. The cost of rescue is beyond our means” (Psalm 49:7-8 The Message).

If you didn’t need a savior, God wouldn’t have sent one. But he knew that your spiritual condition was much worse than your physical condition could ever be. That’s why he sent Jesus to rescue you.

There is no way you can get into a perfect heaven on your own. There is no way you can pay for your salvation. The cost is beyond your means. So Jesus paid for it by coming and dying for you on the cross. He made that ultimate payment with his life. God simply invites you to accept the free gift of salvation that Jesus makes available.

PLAY today’s audio teaching from Pastor Rick >>

Talk It Over

• What are some ways we attempt to rescue ourselves?
• Why do many people find it difficult to accept the idea that we can’t work, buy, or earn our way into heaven?
• How would you describe Jesus’ “rescue efforts” in your own life?